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At the end of a successful year for the devolved administrations in Alba/Scotland and Cymru/Wales, which has seen nationalist parties - Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru - in Government for the first time, the Leader of Mebyon Kernow – the party for Cornwall, Cllr. Dick Cole, says that Cornwall has only suffered 'undemocratic disgrace':
"2007 was a landmark year for democratic renewal in both Scotland and Wales. The Scottish National Party has formed an administration in the Scottish Parliament, with all parties now actively debating the devolution of extra powers.
"In Wales, Plaid Cymru is in coalition with the Labour Party, with both parties committed to law-making powers for the Welsh Assembly.
"But here in Cornwall, we have had to suffer the undemocratic disgrace of Liberal Democrat county councillors and MPs retreating from their commitment to a Cornish Assembly and forcing an unpopular unitary authority onto Cornwall.
"Whereas the people of Scotland and Wales are progressing further along the path to greater political powers, here in Cornwall we are preparing for the backward step that will be the centralisation of our local government structures and the growing influence of unelected, undemocratic bodies and agencies. "
The campaign for a Cornish Assembly, supported by over 10% of the Cornish electorate, has truly had its heart ripped out of it with the Westminster Government agreeing Cornwall County Council's application to make Cornwall a unitary authority. The Liberal Democrats, who lead the Council, made the application for unitary authority status, despite the majority of District Councils and the population of Cornwall being against the development. The unitary authority will centralise local Government in Cornwall, giving more power to a select few and making it harder for devolution to occur.
The Cornish Constitutional Convention (CCC) however sees things differently and continues to place their trust in a 'County' minded executive. At their annual conference in Truro on 1 st December 2007 the CCC even invited the Leader of Cornwall's County Council, David Whalley, to speak. In his speech Whalley said that:
"There is something inevitable about the journey to a Cornish Assembly!"
After his approval of the unitary authority, these were optimistic and surprising words indeed. They also showed that (perhaps) Whalley and (definitely) the Convention fail to realise that the formation of a unitary authority is not a progressive step towards a Cornish Assembly, but a regressive step away from it.
Cornwall does not need reform of local Government, but reform of regional Government. A unitary authority in Cornwall means less power for Cornwall's democratic bodies and will tie Cornwall up further in central Government policy and this means a South West of England Regional Assembly.
If Cornwall's Liberal Democrat Councillors did not know this, their Members of Parliament (MP) should have done. It was Cornwall's Lib Dem MP's who supported the Cornish Constitutional Convention (although not necessarily the Campaign for a Cornish Assembly) from the beginning, while many of their rank and file representatives pursued the establishment and of a West of England Regional Assembly (SWRA) and continue to seek their own representation in it.
However, it is quite possible that the Lib Dem Councillors have politically outmanoeuvred their MP's, in applying for unitary authority status. Many Lib Dem Council members were in favour of a unitary authority for Cornwall and although their MP's did not initially speak out in favour of it, they later supported it (a typical Lib Dem tactic). The Lib Dem Councillors in Cornwall have representation on the SWRA, including Doris Ansari (the political nemesis of all Cornish nationalists and anybody left of centre). In gaining unitary authority status for Cornwall the Lib Dems have stabilised the SWRA. In giving their public support to a Cornish Assembly they have also publicly appeased their MP's and the majority of the Cornish population, who according to opinion polls, are in favour of an Assembly for Cornwall.
MK Leader Cllr. Dick Cole is right to bemoan the disgrace that has put Cornwall on the path to becoming a unitary authority. The challenge for MK in 2008 is to recruit all those disaffected Lib Dem voters in Cornwall, who disagreed so vehemently with their Councils authoritarian approach in pushing forward their own agenda and, as Cole goes on to say:
"… must make 2008 a year of real political activism and fight back against those who have so failed Cornwall over the last 12 months."
(Article compiled for Celtic News by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
03/01/08
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